1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Layer-4 switching.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, Layer-4 (L4) switching (load balancing and failover) within a server farm or cluster has been performed by a separate specialized networking switch dedicated to only L4 switching. Since switching equipment is expensive, utilizing a separate networking switch increases the cost for implementing a server farm. In addition, routing traffic through the dedicated and separate L4 switch delays inbound traffic, thereby reducing connectivity speed at session establishment and during the session itself. Furthermore, the requirement of a dedicated and separate L4 switch places restrictions on the location of clients in relation to servers. Therefore, what is needed is an L4 switching mechanism that does not require a separate, dedicated L4 switch.